Microsoft wants to make sure that everyone knows about the long legacy of Xbox and the games that put it on the map today. To that effect, it teamed up with Netflix for a promotional stunt that is tied together with the Xbox Vault and, of course, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
RELATED: How to Download Halo Infinite Beta
The promotion takes the form of a sweepstakes that players can enter to win prizes themed around Xbox and the new Netflix movie Red Notice, which stars Johnson alongside Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. Johnson plays an FBI profiler hunting art thieves in the show, and this ties in with how players enter the sweepstakes. They must go to a virtual version of the Xbox Vault and answer all the trivia questions about the objects there. The more they get right, the more entries they get into the sweepstakes. Playing through the 76 newly backwards compatible games for Xbox might help.
The prizes in question are varied and interesting to say the least. At the low end, there are 1,000 trading cards for Red Notice that come with limited Xbox Game Pass Ultimate codes, and just above that are 20 Red Notice-themed Xbox Series X consoles. After that are three Cleopatra Eggs modelled after a prop from the show and, finally, the grand prize: an oil painting of the Rock presenting the original Xbox. It was, after all, the Rock who introduced the first Xbox console, and now players can own the moment immortalized on canvas. Many fans will likely consider that a much better ad than what Walmart released using Xbox.
This is definitely an odd way to do a sweepstakes and an odd tie-in, made only slightly less odd by Johnson’s involvement. Considering the fact that Xbox Game Pass was originally imagined as a rental service, perhaps this won’t be the last time Xbox and Netflix collaborate.
Whatever the case, it’s a little unfortunate that this is the Netflix film that Xbox chose to focus on with the collaboration. While Red Notice is by no means terrible, the general consensus is that it’s not exactly the finest hour for any of its three leads.
MORE: Xbox Game Pass Game Flynn: Son of Crimson Explained
